The Official Newscorp/UK end of season finale/Rebekah Brooks did 9/11 thread

Are these resignations orchestrated to wrap up the agenda for the week? I know Murdoch would love nothing more than to start next week with an agenda that's not about him.

(and tbh I don't believe it would work anyway)

He and his son are facing that committee on Tuesday, all of Monday will be nothing but 'what will he say?' Interspersed with announcements that the Sun has been sold to Borders for immediate liquidation, the ceremonial destruction of Wapping with the people still in the buildings and Chase Carey and Roger Ailes coming over to talk about how British people suck.

"News Corporation is not Rupert Murdoch" seems a really significant quote right now

Yeah. I don't think Murdoch has a great deal of control over this particular narrative.

xp yes it does (and a lie)

Yeah, that quote's getting a lot of immediate attention, I'm noticing.

Anyway don't forget...THE REAL POWER BEHIND THE THRONE:

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/02/09/1226002/554932-dame-elisabeth-murdoch.jpg

monty burns' mother

dear old thing

I appreciate how she is not so much cutting that cake as simply outright murdering it.

is that pic of rebekah in the now-locked cleggeron thread a current one? if so, can't believe she'd pin a sarah payne badge to her dress.....

I presume it's from when the NOTW campaigned for "Sarah's Law".

Would any of you recommend a simple explanation of what this is all about? I understand that phone hacking was involved, but why is this having such long legs politically? I just don't get this story but I want to!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjzKiEs_pHI

The short version is that a lot of people had their privacy violated, including celebrities, politicians and people with close ties to famous Britain incidents like the Tube bombing.

The outrage is due to a case involving a 12?-year-old girl who was missing for days who was later found murdered; her family kept calling her phone to find her, leaving messages that filled up her voicemail, and the hackers kept deleting them to make more space so they could get more info, leading the family to believe she was alive when she wasn't.

What he said. Further:

Guardian's overview page:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/phone-hacking

But of course there's always...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_World_phone_hacking_scandal

On top of all that, the connections/collusion between various papers, London police and the major parties of government are why this thing has major legs.

It has long legs politically because almost every politician in the country has been in thrall to Murdoch for decades and they've finally broken the spell xxp

euler, i thought it was because of suggestions/rumors/evidence that the sun and perhaps other newscorp companies had been using similar, criminal techniques to shut down police investigation into them, intimidate politicians, and generally enjoy a great deal of political influence, so that the knowledge of their criminal activity in some cases has led to suspicion that they're thoroughly rotten (and can be publicly, i.e. politically, pursued for it). xxxp

Also former execs from NI being on the police payroll while the police were trying to tell the Guardian 'nothing to see here, mate'.

Yep, former NI execs on the police payroll and former police chiefs / prosecutors who were meant to be looking into the criminality on the NI payroll.

Here's a link to that: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/15/phone-hacking-met-police-guardian

aaaaaargh no Newsnight.

fuck golf

ok this helps!

the prime minister employed as communications chief the ex-editor of the 'news of the world', who had quit after two of his employees had been jailed for hacking voicemails.

the police didn't investigate the editor at the time [because of close and in common parlance corrupt links between the police and news corp/news international] but 'most people' went along with the idea that, though he was editor, he had no idea about the hacking.

the last two weeks have blown that story to smithereens and so part of the story is about the cravenness of politicians on both sides towards murdoch. cameron had been set to give murdoch an even greater share of the uk television market -- which was already controversial.

they should get Morrissey to release "Suedehead '11" for this

― she choots, she pah! (DJP), Friday, 15 July 2011 08:26 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

We had to sneak into your phone
just to hear your voicemails

Appropriately Freudian Freudian slip about a famous Freud in the newspaper famously famed for its slips:

It also quotes Matthew Freud, Elisabeth's wife, something that is unlikely to please the PR man who has been as invisible as he can the last two weeks.

has anybody done a "Will the Last One Out of News Corp Turn Out the Lights?" gif yet

long nyt article about the extent of the relaysh between scotland yard and news int

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/world/europe/17police.html?pagewanted=all

At a parliamentary committee hearing last week, three current and former officials who ran the case were openly mocked. One member of Parliament dubbed an investigator “more Clouseau than Colombo.”

At the hearing, the senior investigator in charge of the day-to- day inquiry, Peter Clarke, blamed The News of the World’s “complete lack of cooperation” for the shortcomings in the department’s initial investigation.

While editors were not sharing any information, they were frequently breaking bread with police officers. Andy Hayman, who as head of the counterterrorism unit was running the investigation, also attended four dinners, lunches and receptions with News of the World editors, including a dinner on April 25, 2006, while his officers were gathering evidence in the case, records show. He told Parliament he never discussed the investigation with editors.

Mr. Hayman left the Metropolitan Police in December 2007 and was soon hired to write a column for The Sunday Times, a News International paper. He defended the inquiry that he led, writing in his column in July 2009 that his detectives had “left no stone unturned.”

On Friday, The New York Times learned that the former editor, Neil Wallis, was reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.

Executives and others at the company also enjoyed close social ties to Scotland Yard’s top officials. Since the hacking scandal began in 2006, Mr. Yates and others regularly dined with editors from News International papers, records show. Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, met for lunch or dinner 18 times with company executives and editors during the investigation, including eight occasions with Mr. Wallis while he was still working at The News of the World.

just a little dining, no big deal

the hayman interview is on the youtubes apparently, it's pretty lol

since May 2010 the Prime Minister met 26 times with Rupert Murdoch, his son James Murdoch, or former News International head Rebekah Brooks. That's nearly once every two weeks. Or as The Times put it: "His meetings with the Murdoch officials exceeded all his encounters with other British media representatives put together."

p damning statistic

Oooooooooh:

@tom_watson If what I have just heard is true, there will have to be a major resignation tomorrow.

man there is such teasing going on with this! if something breaks tomorrow it'd be through the papers, wouldn't it? i don't know if it's just because of the bbc thing but things have seemed to slow down a lot over the weekend.

guy's other tweets seem sorta nonplussed by people throwing around the idea of cameron resigning at some point

sunday papers are already out so if there is something it's probably not in them

Is it this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8642818/Phone-hacking-Sir-Paul-Stephenson-faces-questions-of-health-spa-stay.html

We've been caught.
The News of the World was in the business of catching other people. It failed when it came to not getting caught itself.
We are sorry we've been caught.
We are deeply sorry for the hurt we as individuals have suffered by getting caught.
We regret not acting faster to prevent ourselves being caught.
We realise that simply apologising won't change the fact we've been caught. But it might start to give the corrupt politicians and policemen we rely upon to look after us an excuse to start looking after us again.
Our business was founded on the idea that if we owned the press we would be immune from being caught. Your vindictive little country didn't live up to this.
In the coming days as we take further concrete steps to try to obscure the issues and limit the damage caused you will hear more bullshit from us.
Sincerely,
Rupert
― frankiemachine, Friday, July 15, 2011 12:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

otm

No, that's not it. Or, if Stephenson goes, it won't be for that reason.

George Osborne's been MIGHTY QUIET these past few weeks.

man i wish.

i loved the 'concrete steps' part in the original text of rupert's letter, because i kinda feel like it's going to be in reference to the sun on sunday; we will launch this new shitty newspaper as part of our new approach to righteous journalism!

This is going to be an amazing Peter Morgan film.

provided that revelations keep spilling with this, it'll be interesting to see to what extent they remain partisan or agency specific; you almost feel there could be that level of fatigue that came with the expenses scandal, whereby at some point everyone implicated & it in some ways takes the heat off
xp lol

When I say this is going to be an amazing Peter Morgan film, that means I was speaking to someone who works with him today, and... XD

The MP who will lead the attack on Rebekah Brooks and Rupert and James Murdoch this week over their roles in the phone-hacking scandal has close links with the media empire, it is revealed today.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, admitted he was an old friend of Mr Murdoch's close aide, Les Hinton, and had been for dinner with Ms Brooks.

The Independent on Sunday has also learnt that Mr Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, seen as the future saviour of the company, has also met Mr Whittingdale a number of times. Among her 386 "friends" on Facebook, the only MP she lists is Mr Whittingdale. He is also the only MP among 93 Facebook "friends" of Mr Hinton.

Fuck.

That was poetic, wasn't it? Just fucking exasperated.

Oh, well, that's all right then!

if nothing else there is political capital to be gained in opposing this ^^^, on account of it adding to the picture of the cosy, tory/murdoch group in control of everything. it should be opposed as a conflict of interest, surely ..?